Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
• splash of vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp raw sugar, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°.  In a bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, oil and egg.  Beat together and add to dry ingredients.  Stir until just combined; do not over mix.
3. Fold in blueberries and vanilla.  
4. Fill your muffin tin and sprinkle with raw sugar.  You can also use regular white sugar.  The raw sugar gives the muffins a nice crunch.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden.  Remove and let cool on a baking rack.

Eat and enjoy.

** makes approx. 10-12 muffins

Buttermilk Ranch Dip

This dip is perfect for your holiday crudite platters.  It can easily be transformed into a dressing by adding more buttermilk. 


Ingredients:

• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced or grated
• handful for flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 2 tbsp of chopped chives
• 1 cup mayo
• 1 cup sour cream
• buttermilk, use as desired
• salt and black pepper, to taste
• additional add ins: dill, red pepper, hot sauce or worcestershire sauce. ( I like to keep it simple)

Directions:

1. Combine the finely minced or mashed or grated garlic to a bowl.
2. Add desired herbs, mayo and sour cream.  Mix until combined.
3. Add seasonings and enough buttermilk to reach desired consistency.
4. Taste to adjust seasonings.  Cover with plastic wrap and let chill in fridge for a couple hours or overnight.  The flavors will combine and become delicious.

* If the mayo is a little overpowering, just add more sour cream to mellow it out.

BUTTERMILK PANCAKES

Flipping through the channels one rainy day, I came across Good Eats.  Alton Brown has a wacky way of explaining the science behind cooking.  He captivated me with his buttermilk pancakes and here we are...  I tweaked it a little and let me tell you, these are the fluffiest melt in your mouth pancakes I have ever tasted.  You'll never go back to the box stuff again!

Dry Ingredients

2 cups AP flour

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients

 part 1: 4 tbsp melted butter and 2 egg yolks, mixed together

 part 2: 2 cups buttermilk and 2 egg whites, mixed together


Preheat a griddle pan to 325°.  Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Once the griddle is preheated, you can mix parts 1 & 2 of the wet mixture together.  There is a reasoning behind this.  Trust me and just do it!  At this point, I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the wet mixture.  Now you may add the wet ingredients to the dry.  Stir until just mixed.  Warning: Do NOT over mix your batter! Unless you want hockey pucks for breakfast.  Add a little shortening or butter to the griddle or pan and ladle the batter in.  Flip when little bubbles begin to appear.  Throw some on your plate with butter and maple syrup.  If you're from Louisiana, a little Steen's works too.

Enjoy!